Saudi Arabian Regime Prohibits Driving By Women

November 15, 1990|Los Angeles Times

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- Facing mounting demands from religious conservatives, the Saudi government announced on Wednesday that women who drive automobiles in the kingdom are ``portents of evil`` and will be subject to ``appropriate punishment.``

``Women`s driving of cars contradicts the sound Islamic attitude of the Saudi citizen, who is jealous about his sacred ideals,`` the Saudi Ministry of Interior said in announcing the kingdom`s first legal ban on women driving.

Although tradition for years has prevented Saudi women from obtaining driver`s licenses, there had been no law providing sanctions against women who drive until the ruling announced Tuesday night.

The government announcement, carried on Saudi television, said that the ban on women driving was for ``preserving sanctities and to prevent portents of evil, because it has been juridically proven that reasons for woman`s degeneration or for exposing her to temptation should be prevented.``

The announcement did not say what penalties would be imposed on women drivers.

It came after a storm of religious protest over a demonstration last week in which 50 black-cloaked women drove 15 cars through the streets of Riyadh, the conservative capital.

In the days since the Nov. 6 protest, several of the women who participated have been suspended from government jobs and others have received threatening phone calls.

Religious leaders at mosques have linked the driving demonstration to the presence of foreign military troops in the kingdom, and leaflets handed out by Islamic activists listed the women`s names, diplomats said.

The pamplets identified many of them as ``Communists, secularists`` and ``American agents.``

``Do whatever you think is appropriate under the circumstances,`` the pamphlet said in what Saudi government officials and Western diplomats have regarded as an ominous warning of more turbulence to come.

``It`s serious. It`s bad, and it`s not over yet,`` a Western diplomat in Riyadh said.

The ruling was widely regarded as a concession to religious conservatives in the hope of offsetting any more politically troublesome protests against the presence of foreign troops in Saudi Arabia, the diplomat said.

``They`re throwing them a piece of meat,`` said one angry young Saudi woman of the decision to clamp down on women`s rights to prevent further political unrest.